Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Greettings from Latvia!!!, 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Continuing with the Hodge-Podge topics here......

We took another day trip about 2 hrs. away to partake of a HUGE street Festival and a WONDERFUL, outdoor concert at night. This was to a town called Cesis. It is also very historic, and the Cesis Castle ruins are right in the town. There were a zillion vendor booths all along the streets in this small town and a lot of performances by singers, folk-dancers, ancient crafters and re-enactors of Medieval sword battles, etc. We spent hours enjoying all the sights and sounds by people dressed in that period clothing.

At night, was the REAL reason we were there. An outdoor concert to celebrate the music of THE greatest composer of popular, Latvian music and song---Raimonds Pauls. (ALL Latvian men's names have an "s" on the end....). So--Paul--is Pauls. Peter--is Peteris. Karl--is Karlis.
This is because the Latvian language has male and female genders that apply to all nouns--and names. They feminize last names--if you are a woman, even though the males keep it the way it is. So--My cousins last name is Barkans, but if she writes her name--it is written as Barkane. My last name is Veskimets--but if I lived in Latvia, it would be Veskimete. NOT unusual in some European languages.....

Anyway--I digressed again.....ALL for the sake of history.....

So--this was the big, open square outside the St. John's Church in the Cesis town.
This church, by the way, is where the Oriental Day Lily exhibit was. I posted some pictures of all the Lilies in a Post.

Here's a bit of history about this Town, just so you can appreciate how OLD everything is here.

The St. John's Church, which sits alongside of the Cesis Medieval Castle , is one of the oldest in Latvia. It was built in the beginning of the 13th Century when Christianity was spreading into the Baltic's and it was meant to serve the needs of the Livonian Order. It is believed that this Church was built between the years 1237 and 1561.

Anyway--I am sure you "get it" that this is a very old town.

Anyway--it was a HUGE, yearly Festival all over Town. We killed a lot of time cruising all the booths and the streets and the open areas, where the Medieval times were being re-enacted. Of course--we also took a break to enjoy some of the famous Cesis Beer, brewed right there....and rest our feet.

Then we made our way down about 10 sets of stone steps, which took us into the "bowl" where the evening's Concert was about to begin. It was so neat! Right alongside the castle's ruins--where there once was (surely!) the moat--was the seating area.

The 3-part Concert went on until 12:30 AM. Mind you--we still had an almost 2hr, drive back to Riga!!!! It was just a WONDERFUL Concert!!!! People singing along.....Standing up and swaying to certain songs....EVERYTHING digs deep into the Heart here! I was SOOOO happy to realize that--no matter how many years had passed--all the same songs I grew up with, and I thought were forgotten, everyone still knew anyway. Man! We are talking3 generations here!

OH! Did I say I had some pictures as well of this place????? Dah! I SO digress.......

Here is the Flower arranging competition in the main square....
Please note the unusual, tall, cone-shaped flower plantings they have everywhere in Latvia. They are constructed on a bee-hive sort of a framework. VERY pretty!



This message was edited Aug 3, 2008 5:44 PM